Sherwood Forest’s Festival Summer gets underway
Sherwood Forest is preparing for a summer of festival fun, which gets underway this weekend.
The Major Oak Woodland Festival is a celebration of traditional woodland arts and crafts, which attracts hundreds of visitors each year.
Organised by the Sherwood Forest Trust, MOWF, as it is affectionately known, has over 30 makers and craftspeople who will be setting up their stalls at the Major Oak and the events green at the RSPB Sherwood Forest.
There are performances, including storytelling and music, to enjoy and so many activities to get hands-on with from archery to weaving.
It all gets underway at 11am on Saturday 17th June, continuing on Sunday too.
For more information, including a map and list of traders and performers, visit our Events page.
And then we count down to the big one – the Robin Hood Festival.
This year we start on Thursday 27th July with three days of films in the forest, provided by Adventure Cinema.
There’ll be Harry Potter’s screen debut, Moana, the animated tale of a brave Hawaiian princess and 80s classic Dirty Dancing.
On day three, we’ll have children’s favourite The Gruffalo and Stickman, followed by not one, but two Robin Hood movies. We’ll have the 1973 animated Disney classic, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, followed by the Hollywood blockbuster from 2010, starring Russell Crowe as our outlaw hero.
Talking of outlaws, Sunday 30th July we’ll be inviting visitors to Hunt the Outlaw out in the forest.
On 4th August, we welcome back the fabulous Knights of Nottingham with their spectacular Medieval jousting show.
They will be performing twice in the arena with their Robin Hood-themed show until Sunday 6th August.
There’ll also be Festival regulars the Medieval Maniax, Bill Brookman, What A Palaver and many more besides.
On 12th and 13th August, we have a wildlife weekend, with talks and activities to focus on the incredible and rare ancient oak landscape that is Sherwood Forest.
Then it’s a chance to step back in time once again – this time to the Wars of the Roses, with three superb living history teams – The Ferrers Household, Sir John Savile’s Retinue and the Lord Thomas Stanley Retinue. They will be demonstrating the battle techniques and skirmishes of one of the bloodiest eras of English History on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August.
We’re delighted to welcome This Is My Theatre, who will make their Sherwood Forest debut with their play of the legend of Robin Hood on the evening of Tuesday 22nd August.
We have two festivals in one weekend for the August Bank Holiday. Sherwood will again host the Nottinghamshire Day Festival, celebrating all that’s good and great about our county.
Then we’ll have the amazing Sherwood Outlaws performing their arena show, pitching Robin, Marian and the Merry Men against the Sheriff of Nottingham and his henchmen and women in their eternal feud for the freedom of the forest.
You can find out all about this summer on our Events page and Robin Hood Festival page here.